This invention relates to sectional floors and especially to sectional floors for use in indoor arenas where a number of sports, such as hockey and basketball, are played which require totally different playing surfaces.
Indoor arenas frequently are used for a number of different sports, such as hockey, basketball, and the like. In many cases, the arena must be converted within a few hours from use with one sport to use with another. Typically, the floor of the arena is connected to a refrigeration system so that the base surface is formed of ice suitable for hockey and other ice skating events. When the arena is to be used for other sports, typically basketball, the arena must be converted by installing a wooden floor. Such floors are usually provided by assembling a large number of sectional floor panels which rest upon the ice. The floor panels must be secured together in such a manner that they provide a flat continuous surface.
The floor panels in prior art floors are connected together generally by one of two different methods. One method has employed countersunk bolts, accessible from above the floor, which pass downwardly through an opening in one panel and threadably engage a bracket element mounted on an adjacent panel. An effort is made to secure the bolts in position with their heads flush to the floor in an attempt to make the floor surface flat. In practice, however, these bolts do not lie completely flush with the surface, but rather present objectionable and hazardous irregularities upon which a player may cut or scrape himself severely. Moreover, there is a second difficulty with such surface mounted bolts in that they tend to sweat due to the fact that they are chilled by the underlying cold surface. This sweating is highly objectionable in that it tends to make the basketball floor slippery. A further objection to this system is that it requires a substantial amount of time to install and dismantle a floor since a large number of bolts must be threaded and during the installation process, the panel openings must be carefully aligned with the underlying threaded bracket openings.
A second method of joining together panels in prior art sectional floors has been to utilize horizontally extending bolts which lie completely under the surface of each floor panel. These bolts are disposed completely below the playing surface so that the floor surface itself is smooth. This second method, like the flush bolt approach, is subject to the objection that it requires a considerable amount of time for installation as well as removal of the floor when the arena is converted from use for hockey to use for basketball and vice versa. Indeed, in the second method even greater amounts of time are required since it is more difficult to align the openings in the horizontal brackets which are below floor level. Also, the bolt holes are located relatively close to the underlying surface which makes it more difficult for the workmen to manipulate the bolts.